Will Instagram’s New Messaging App Solve Facebook’s Problem?

Facebook’s Instagram app is launching a photo and video messaging service, just months after Snapchat, a mobile app popular with teens, spurned a $3 billion offer from the social network.

On Thursday, Facebook said it would add a messaging service, called Instagram Direct, to its smartphone app.

The new app comes on the heels of Facebook’s disclosure during its third-quarter earnings call in October that it was losing some teen users. The disclosure, coupled with a steady stream of surveys and data that suggest Facebook may have a “teen problem,” spurred a barrage of questions from analysts and investors.

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